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“Jefferson did indeed propose a government school system. It was rejected by the other Founders.”

Fascinating. I was aware that Jefferson did propose a primary education system that was rejected by the Virginia Legislature, and then did later set about creating a higher education institution that became the University of Virginia. The University of Virginia at one time enjoyed the distinction of having three former US Presidents serving simultaneously as members of their Board of Directors (Visitors), this being Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe.

But I was not aware that Jefferson ever submitted his proposal for an elementary school system to any body that could accurately be described as composed of “Founders.” Perhaps you have a source of original documents describing Jefferson’s proposal, the Founders’ rejection of same, and their reasons for their rejection? I would greatly enjoy perusing such documents and would very much appreciate your courtesy.

“[Jefferson's] statement of the objects of primary education contained in the celebrated report prepared by him for the Commission appointed by the Governor of Virginia under an act of the General Assembly and which met in 1818 at the unpretending tavern at Rockfish Gap in the Blue Ridge. There have been held since that day, in many parts of the United States, conventions and conferences of teachers, educators and friends and patrons of learning more numerously attended, favored with more abundant information, and with other advantages for the consideration and discussion of educational questions; but none, certainly, more distinguished for the dignity and ability of its members. Besides senators and judges, there were among those who assembled on that occasion, James Monroe, then President of the United States, and his two predecessors, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. And, certainly, we may look in vain for any public statement before that time or since, of the objects of public education so concise so comprehensive and so just as that contained in the report of this Commission written by Jefferson. He thus defined the objects of primary education:
“1. To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business.
“2. To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts in writing
“3. To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties.
“4. To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either.
"5. To know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he retains; to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor and judgment.
"6. And, in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed."

This statement of the objects of primary education will never be improved. It ought to be written in letters of gold and hung in every primary school throughout the land and be known by heart to every teacher and child therein. It is, indeed, more than a statement of the elements of rudimentary education. It is an enumeration of the duties of every good citizen under a popular government.(1)
__________ (1) U. S. Bureau of Education, Circular No. 1 P. 33.__________
. . . . . The University of Virginia and Thomas Jefferson, Its Father, An Address delivered by James C. Carter, LL. D., upon the occasion of the Dedication of the new Buildings of the University; June 14, 1898, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, in 19 volumes, Memorial Edition, edited by Albert Ellery Burgh, Vol 2, pg xi.

Jefferson’s plan, for local school districts of approx one square mile, was rejected by the Virginia Legislature, but over the following century, its general outline was gradually adopted by many of the states.

As I recall, the general outline of what we now call primary, or elementary, public schools, was instituted beginning in the 1820s in New England and spreading west and south as new states were added.

“. . . A single measure in my own State has interested me much. Our legislature some time ago appropriated a fund of a million and a half dollars to a system of general education. After two or three projects proposed and put by I ventured to offer one which, although not adopted, is printed and published for general consideration to be taken up at the next session. It provides an elementary school in every neighborhood of fifty or sixty families, a college for the languages, mensuration, navigation and geography within a day's ride of every man's house, and a central university of the sciences for the whole State of eight, ten or twelve professors. But it has to encounter ignorance; malice, egoism, fanaticism, religious, political and local perversities . . .”
. . . . . Thomas Jefferson, letter to Albert Gallatin, February 15, 1818, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, in 19 volumes, Memorial Edition, edited by Albert Ellery Burgh, Vol 19, pg 258

Thanks SUSSA, very much, for posting.